It started with four tickets. Just four tickets. John Stacy, who hosted a radio show about Memphis football at the time, found himself with four extra tickets to a Tigers football game.

Stacy, who served in the U.S. Navy, decided he would donate them to the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Maybe some of the veterans would like to go, you know? 

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Stacy contacted Byron Williams, an addiction counselor at the VA. Williams wasn’t sure how it would go.

“Guys with PTSD don’t do large crowds,” he said. “They don’t do explosions.”

But Williams finally settled on a handful of veterans from the VA’s substance abuse program. He took them to a Saturday game.

“Some of them had to get up and leave, it was so intense,” he said. “But, gradually, it changed. I began to see them jump up. I began to see smiles on their faces.”

And thus was born one of the sweetest, most meaningful ticket-distribution programs you may know nothing about.

“It taught me how to live,” said Larry Wright, 71, who served in the U.S. Army from 1970 to 1972. “I didn’t know you could go to a game and not get drunk. Now, I go to every game sober. I can’t wait for next season to begin.”

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Wright was one of a dozen or so veterans who assembled in a hospital conference room Tuesday to meet Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield. They gave him a standing ovation when he arrived.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had anything like this here,” Williams said. “This is big-boy stuff.”

Silverfield seemed almost uncomfortable with the reception. He figured he should be the one offering the applause.

“I have respect for each and every one of you,” he said. “And for what you did for all of us.”

Nobody was pretending that a Memphis Tigers football game is the secret to recovery. But it’s remarkable the power a ticket can have.

After Stacy got photos of the veterans at that first game back in 2015, he showed them to a former Tiger named Bob Rowan. Rowan was so moved, he donated 10 tickets for every game.

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“I started to talk about it on the radio show,” Stacy said. “We got more and more.”

Soon, at least 100 veterans were going to every Memphis football game.

Then the university got on board, wrapping Stacy’s enterprise into its “Seats for Service” program.

“Last year was the first year we had tickets to basketball games, too,” Williams said. “We’ve taken more than 3,000 veterans to football and basketball games over the years.”

What does it mean to the veterans?

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“It’s hard to describe,” Wright said. “I’ve been to lots of Memphis State games when I was younger. But I didn’t know how to do it without getting drunk.

“I picked up a substance addiction in the service. I’m not pointing fingers or anything. It happens. It happened to millions of us.

“But now I got to games and don’t have a drink. It’s incredible to be part of something and be sober again.”

Jackie Richmond served in the Army from 1980 to 1988. He said his “life was a shambles” before he got to the VA.

“I used to be cheering for things that weren’t good for me,” he said. “Now, there isn’t a Saturday when there’s a game that I’m not first in line for tickets.”

This isn’t a program that gets a whole lot of attention. Nobody pulls the veterans out of the crowds to stand on the field and get the applause.

It’s just a big throng of veterans sitting together, cheering for the Tigers, and learning that life can be fun again.

“By the time they get to us, they’re badly mangled,” Williams said. “Many of them are on the verge of giving up. These are our nation’s heroes. They deserve our best.”

If you want to contribute to the cause, just contact the Memphis ticket office and ask about the “Seats for Service” program. 

You, too, can send a veteran to enjoy a small slice of the America they sacrificed so much to protect.